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$23
By Emma Donoghue
$13.72
$40
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The government of the United Kingdom plans to allow copyrighted material to be copied for personal use; Julian Assange gives kudos to Bradley Manning from the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London; meanwhile, South Africa’s ruling party has called for an official boycott of Israel. These discoveries and more after the jump.
Posted on Dec 24, 2012
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AP/Themba Hadebe
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Despite the fact that video seen around the world clearly showed police firing on the South African miners, their co-workers are the ones who are being charged in the deaths.
Posted on Aug 30, 2012
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dilmarousseff (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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By Pepe Escobar, TomDispatch —
Here’s the multi-trillion dollar question: Does the emergence of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as economic powers signal that we have truly entered a new multipolar world?
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Gamma Man (CC-BY)
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By Ellen Brown, Truthout —
Conventional wisdom holds that government bureaucrats are bad businesspeople. But around the world, the many countries with strong public banking sectors generally have strong, stable economies.
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By Amy Goodman — The “American way of life” can be measured in per capita emissions of carbon. In the United States, on average, about 20 metric tons of CO2 is released into the atmosphere annually, four times as much as in China.
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NASA / Glenn Research Center
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By Eugene Robinson — After the summit ended Sunday, initial reaction basically ranged from “Historic Breakthrough: The Planet Is Saved” to “Tragic Failure: The Planet Is Doomed.”
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Zimbabwe’s own Robert Mugabe is the unlikely star of this startlingly funny little number that its sponsoring chicken restaurant chain, Nando’s South Africa, calls “Last dictator standing.” This did not please the real-life version of the ad’s fun-loving dictator.
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AP / Schalk van Zuydam
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By Amy Goodman — High above the pavement, overlooking Durban’s famous South Beach and the pounding surf of the Indian Ocean, and just blocks from the United Nations Climate Change Conference, where up to 20,000 people gathered, seven activists fought against the wind to unfurl a banner that read “Listen to the People, Not the Polluters.”
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This week, “Democracy Now!” is broadcasting from Durban, South Africa, where the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 17, is taking place. Host Amy Goodman points to the high-stakes issues on the table at the conference, including the future of the Kyoto Protocol, and covers the action from last weekend’s marches.
Posted on Dec 5, 2011
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Friends of the Earth International (CC-BY)
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How will nations finance the effort to slow and adapt to climate change? What role will the U.S. play? And will the countries that ratified the Kyoto Protocol vote to renew it? These are some of the questions journalists are looking to answer during the U.N. climate talks under way in Durban, South Africa, this week. (more)
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AP / Schalk van Zuydam
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By Amy Goodman — The United Nations’ annual climate summit descended on Durban, South Africa, this week, but not in time to prevent the tragic death of Qodeni Ximba.
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Wikimedia Commons / Jmquez (CC-BY-SA)
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In what looks to many civil rights watchdogs like an ominous throwback to the days of apartheid, the South African parliament passed a law Tuesday that significantly curtails the ability of the press to cover stories about politically sensitive subjects, according to the government’s standards.
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AP / Libyan state television via APTN
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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently joined the chorus of outsiders urging Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to give up, but that suggestion isn’t hitting home with Gadhafi, according to yet another head of state, Jacob Zuma. The South African president returned from a visit to Tripoli with the news that Gadhafi isn’t planning to go anywhere anytime soon.
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By Amy Goodman — Late at night on March 17, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide boarded a small plane with his family in Johannesburg. The following morning, he arrived in Haiti. It was just over seven years after he was kidnapped from his home in a U.S.-backed coup d’etat.
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AP / Ramon Espinosa
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Arriving on a charter jet from South Africa, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has returned to Port-au-Prince after seven years in exile.
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AP / David Vincent
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By T.L. Caswell — The sport’s international governing body is looking into reports that the defeated players were exhibited in Pyongyang as targets of condemnation. Kim Jong Il must be confronted in this case.
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Dr. Sonnet Ehlers / antirape.co.za
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Sigmund Freud famously wrote about the fabled “vagina dentata,” or toothed vagina—a symbol of terror and fascination embedded in the folklore of many a culture. Now, a South African doctor has taken that idea ... (continued)
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Flickr / babasteve (CC-BY)
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Harper’s Ken Silverstein explains “why I hate Landon Donovan” in this feel-good post. “Tragically,” Silverstein concludes, “it appears the U.S. soccer team will likely continue to plague the Cup with its God-awful soccer.” Guess not everyone’s on the bandwagon.
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Patrick Chappatte, Le Temps, Switzerland —
Posted on Jun 11, 2010
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AP / Jerome Delay
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By John Cheney-Lippold — The wait is over. In a perfectly timed dose of fanatic nationalism, the World Cup is poised to finally kick off in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Friday.
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Wikimedia Commons
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A South African white supremacist leader, Eugene Terreblanche, was allegedly murdered by two farmhands in the northwest region of the country, eliciting cries of protest from his far-right followers and a plea for calm from the country’s black president, Jacob Zuma.
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Wikimedia Commons
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The World Cup is coming and South Africa has overhauled its athletic infrastructure in preparation. But while only four games will be played in the city of Nelspruit, the government has spent $137 million on a new stadium there while many of its denizens live without electricity.
Posted on Mar 12, 2010
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Flickr / World Economic Forum
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Polygamous South African President Jacob Zuma has apologized for fathering his 20th child with a woman who is not one of his three wives. Many health activists are arguing that the 67-year-old is setting bad example, given that South Africa has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV and AIDS.
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Background: Suburbanbloke (CC-BY-SA)
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By Amy Goodman — A landmark class action case is under way in a New York federal court, with victims of apartheid in South Africa suing corporations that they say helped the pre-1994 regime.
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By Amy Goodman — Dennis Brutus, who fought apartheid with soaring, searing words, died in his sleep early on Dec. 26 in Cape Town, at the age of 85, but he lived with his eyes wide open.
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youtube.com
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South African President Jacob “Bring Me My Machine Gun” Zuma has become an unlikely supporter of HIV care in his country, announcing Tuesday—World AIDS Day—new, expanded health care measures to be implemented for HIV-positive mothers and their babies.
Posted on Dec 1, 2009
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AP / Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi
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Zimbabwean human rights groups have called out soccer’s international governing body for handing Robert Mugabe, the country’s notorious leader, a “propaganda coup” when he was permitted to hold up the World Cup trophy while it made its way through the African continent.
Posted on Nov 27, 2009
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IAAF / Clyde Koa Wing
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It has been announced that Caster Semenya, the impressive 18-year-old South African runner, will retain her world title in the 800-meter race despite a public investigation/smear campaign against the athlete regarding the authenticity of her female gender.
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IAAF / Clyde Koa Wing
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South Africa’s 18-year-old Caster Semenya, the new 800-meter world champion, is so fast the International Association of Athletics Federations has dispatched an endocrinologist, a gynecologist, an internist, a genderist (?) and a psychologist to determine whether she’s actually female.
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cbsnews.com
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Talk about a trump card. The 2010 World Cup in South Africa is set to be a momentous occasion for the country to show itself off to the world. But a strike by 70,000 construction workers demanding pay increases has halted work on the stadiums being built for the tournament.
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smh.com.au
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After an uninspiring scoreless draw with fellow autocratic state Saudi Arabia, it seems that North Korea’s football (soccer) team has managed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The qualification raises the possibility of a cup confrontation with South Korea—or even the U.S.—next summer.
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ning.com
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With official results expected Saturday, South Africa’s presidency and a two-thirds majority in parliament will go to Jacob Zuma and the African National Congress, making Zuma the third president in the country’s short democratic history.
Posted on Apr 24, 2009
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AP photo / J. Scott Applewhite
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By Gbemisola Olujobi — Linda, a 24-year-old sex worker in Kigali, Rwanda, didn’t want to be tested for HIV because she feared she would find she would soon die. Her fear was not unfounded. Being aware of one’s HIV-positive status was a first step toward dying of AIDS in Rwanda, as in most parts of Africa. Anti-retroviral drugs were expensive and hard to come by. But that was before President Bush’s PEPFAR.
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AP photo / Riccardo Gangale
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By Gbemisola Olujobi — As the dust settles from the feverish dances that greeted Barack Obama’s victory in the American elections, Africans wonder what “our son and brother” will be able to do for Africa in the face of daunting challenges in the United States and other parts of the world.
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U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Lock
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As his country teeters on the brink of collapse, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his information minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, are pointing fingers at the U.K. as the source of the recent cholera outbreak that has killed hundreds in the African nation.
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EPA / Jon Hrusa
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In a glaring example of the importance of theory in practice, U.S. researchers have accused former South African President Thabo Mbeki of being responsible for more than 300,000 AIDS-related “avoidable deaths,” pointing to Mbeki’s siding with a theoretical camp that argues AIDS is caused by a collapsed immune system, not a viral infection. As a result, offers of free drugs and grant money for AIDS treatment were rejected.
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USAF / Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Lock
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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, pictured, was still ensconced in a Harare hotel with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday in an attempt to work out some kind of power-sharing arrangement with his rival for the presidency in this year’s protracted and controversial election process. But after a weekend of intense talks, nobody had signed on any dotted lines.
Posted on Aug 11, 2008
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guardian.co.uk
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A national strike left South Africa’s streets largely deserted Wednesday as 2 million people refused to work in protest of soaring food and fuel prices. The action, led by a coalition of trade unions, was symbolic and precautionary, suggesting additional strikes if the government and business remained inept at managing the national economy.
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AP photo / Denis Farrell
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During his 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela might not have imagined that he would make it to his 90th birthday. The U.S. government gave him an early gift just recently by removing the former South African president and freedom fighter from its terrorist watch list. For his part, Mandela plans to mark the occasion quietly with family at home.
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A plan to legalize sex work in time for South Africa’s 2010 World Cup has many in the country upset. While supporters believe criminalization puts women in harm’s way, religious groups and others argue that “family values” trump the interests of both the national economy and individual workers.
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AP photo / Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi
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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has fought tooth and nail to maintain his position of power during the three months since his authority was threatened by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, widely recognized (but not by Mugabe) as the winner of last March’s election, and now it looks like all that hard work and abject brutality has paid off.
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He was surrounded by stars from the movie and music industries, but Nelson Mandela was the big draw at the iconic South African leader’s 90th birthday party in London’s Hyde Park, where Mandela took his moment in the spotlight to urge well-wishers to continue the fight against AIDS.
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flickr.com/photos/opendemocracy
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Whatever else might be said about Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change, it’s definitely fair to say that the man is tenacious. After weeks of confusion following his bid to oust longtime leader Robert Mugabe from the presidency, Tsvangirai says he’s now gearing up for an electoral rematch.
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AP photo / Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi
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Last month’s election in Zimbabwe is yet to be resolved. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai believes he defeated President Robert Mugabe fairly, but a recount and a runoff may happen before the contest is finally decided. Meanwhile, opposition supporters say Mugabe’s party is attacking them as he holds on to power.
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AP photo / Nati Harnik
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Truthdig tips its hat this week to South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who took the Anglican Church to task for what he called its “homophobic” attitude, declaring in a recent interview with BBC Radio 4 that, “If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn’t worship that God.”
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eb.com
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More than 3,000 South African gold miners are trapped 1.4 miles beneath the surface of the Earth. The company that owns the mine said that its workers will be able to breathe, but South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers said it is extremely concerned for those who are trapped. Update: All of the workers have been rescued.
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Five South African men, including former Police Minister Adriaan Vlok, have received suspended prison sentences for attempting to assassinate a prominent anti-apartheid leader 18 years ago. The intended target, Frank Chikane, who now works for the president, did not want the men to go to prison. Vlok previously sought forgiveness by washing Chikane’s feet.
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The South African government has traditionally taken a head-in-the-sand approach to AIDS, even though the nation is suffering one of the worst epidemics in the world. However, recent shifts in policy indicate a newfound interest in aggressively addressing the crisis.
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The world’s “first black Jesus movie” will premier at Sundance this Sunday. “Son of Man,” directed by Mark Dornford-May, portrays Christ as a modern African revolutionary and “aims to shatter the Western image of a placid savior with fair hair and blue eyes.” | story
See Truthdig’s ”Jesus: The Man, The Myth” by the Rev. Madison Shockley for background on the historical Jesus and representations of “the Christ.”
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Marching in Chicago: Resisting Rahm Emanuel’s Neoliberal Savagery
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